The administrative court in Kurdjali ordered a recount of result of the municipal elections for the municipality of Ardino, lawyer for the plaintiff Viktor Tokoushev announced on November 12.

Plaintiff in the case was the Novoto Vreme (New Time) party, after its candidate Mehmed Dikme lost the elections with 800 votes difference. The elections in Ardino were won by Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) candidate Resim Mourad.

Recounting would start on Wednesday November 14 at 12.30 in the court hall. All parties involved would be present at the recount.

The court accepted all requests for additional proof by the plaintiff. The main demand of the plaintiff was a full recount of the votes. At this stage it would become clear whether there were any ballots casted for Dikme, which had put aside as invalid for various reasons.

Tokoushev said "we think there are many such ballots. Well known became the case with the defect, a dot in the field for the candidate for MRF. The problem with these ballots is that if the vote would have been casted for MRF, it would have been counted as valid, if it would have been casted for Dikme, it would have been declared invalid. An unacceptable double standard."

Plaintiffs also demanded a lists from administration, with Bulgarian citizens who had come to Ardino with the sole purpose to vote. "We want to have a list made, that would compare those who voted for the European parliament elections and those who voted for the municipal elections," Tokoushev said, "if for the European elections there were 14 000 voters in Ardino, these elections there were 21 000".

"According to us, the votes of those who do not have the right to vote, meaning who have not lived in the municipality for the past 10 months, are the cause of the result of these elections," he said.

With handwriting experts, the signatures on election lists were being examined. "We see a lot of very similar signatures, which gives us reason to believe that these signatures were from the same persons," Tokoushev said.

The recount was expected to take several days, Focus news agency said.

Dikme was not present at the hearing as he has not been accepted by the court as party in the case. Mourad and his lawyer were present at the hearing.

Meanwhile, Mourat has taken the oath as mayor of Ardino, Focus news agency said.